The third defendant in a Hopeton dog theft case pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of petty larceny in Accomack County Circuit Court.

A plea agreement was reached in the case of Charlene Boyajian, 46, of Virginia Beach, as it was previously with Bettina Rodriguez and MMA fighter and dog advocate Gordon “Shotgun" Shell.

In exchange for their guilty pleas, charges were reduced to petty larceny from felony larceny of a dog.

All three individuals were in a rental truck that came from Virginia Beach carrying pet supplies to the Eastern Shore in January 2015, according to testimony.

After dropping the supplies off at a storage unit in Exmore, the trio drove to a residence on Matthews Road in Hopeton, where they were observed by Horace Hall Jr. cutting the lead and putting a pit-bull mix into a crate, then putting the crate into the rear of the truck.

Hall said he had driven that road many times and knew the dog and knew it did not belong to them.

He followed the truck to a stop sign at the corner of Rt. 316, got out of his vehicle and asked them several times, “Do you have permission to take this man’s dog?“

Hall testified he heard a man’s voice shout something from the rear of the truck.

“The truck accelerated and drove away,” he said, adding, “I had to get out of their way. They ran the stop sign, turned right and headed south.”

Hall said he immediately called the Accomack County Sheriff’s Office and told them what had happened.

When the truck was stopped by officers at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, there was no dog inside. The three denied knowing anything about a dog and told police they went only as far north as Exmore to drop off supplies for the Accomack animal control facility, which had just taken in a large number poorly-kept of dogs from an Onancock home.

They said they did that and turned around to go home.

Still, investigation and testimony from witnesses showed they had called and arranged to meet a person at the storage unit. The dog was transferred from their truck into the person's car there and taken across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to Hampton Roads.

The defendants said they rescued the dog because it was dehydrated, starving to death and had no shelter.

This was disputed by an Accomack dog warden who had seen the dog.

Shell and Rodriguez were each sentenced to 90 days in jail with all but 10 days suspended. Additionally, they were each fined $1,000. In addition, Rodriguez was ordered to complete 50 hours of community service.

A pre-sentence report was ordered for Boyajian. She will be sentenced during the next term of court.